Emden served in the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy) until the end of the war, at which point she was ceded to France.

The new cruiser was laid down in 1914 at the AG Weser shipyard in Bremen, launched in February 1916, and commissioned into the High Seas Fleet in December 1916.

Ceded to France in the Treaty of Versailles, she was too badly damaged by the attempted scuttling and beaching to see service with the French Navy, so was instead used as a target after 1922, and broken up for scrap in 1926.

The new ships were broadly similar to the earlier cruisers, with only minor alterations in the arrangement of some components, including the forward broadside guns, which were raised a level to reduce their tendency to be washed out in heavy seas.

[2] Emden was ordered under the contract name "Ersatz Nymphe"[b] and was laid down at the AG Weser shipyard in Bremen in December 1914.

After completing her initial testing in mid-March 1917, Kommodore (Commodore) Paul Heinrich [de] (the II Commander of Torpedo Boats) came aboard Emden and made her his flagship.

Emden thereafter joined the High Seas Fleet and spent the following months carrying out local defensive patrols in the German Bight.

[5] In September, Emden was assigned to the Sonderverband (Special Unit) that was to carry out Operation Albion, the invasion of the islands of Dagö, Ösel and Moon that guarded the Gulf of Riga in the Baltic Sea.

[6] For the initial assault on 12 October, Emden was tasked with bombarding a Russian gun emplacement at Pamerort; Heinrich was given command of the landings there.

Her first two salvos fell short, but the third hit and disabled the telephone wires and speaking tubes, which rendered central control of the Russian guns impossible.

[10] Emden moved forward at around 07:45 to support the German screen, and at 07:56, she opened fire on the three leading destroyers at a range of 13,800 meters (15,100 yd).

[12] On 14 October, Emden participated in an operation to clear the Kassar Wiek—the body of water between Dagö and Ösel—of Russian naval forces.

She and the battleship Kaiser were to steam to the entrance to Soelo Sound, where they could support the force of torpedo-boats tasked with sweeping the Kassar Wiek.

[17] Emden was detached from the Sonderverband three days later, and by 28 October, she had arrived back in the North Sea and had resumed defensive patrols.

[20] German attacks on shipping between Britain and Norway, which had begun in late 1917, prompted the Grand Fleet to begin escorting convoys with a detached battle squadron.

This decision presented the Germans with opportunity for which they had been waiting the entire war: a portion of the numerically stronger Grand Fleet was separated and could be isolated and destroyed.

Hipper, aboard the battleship Baden, ordered wireless transmissions be kept to a minimum, to prevent radio intercepts by British intelligence.

[20][21] On 1 June, Emden was dry-docked at the AG Weser shipyard for periodic maintenance, though partway through she was moved to the Kaiserliche Werft in Wilhelmshaven.

The ship's last wartime operation took place in early October, when the German naval forces that had been based in occupied Flanders—mainly torpedo boats and U-boats—had to withdraw in the face of Allied advances during the Hundred Days Offensive.

[27] While at Scapa Flow, the crew of the battleship Friedrich der Grosse harassed Reuter incessantly, until the British allowed him to transfer his flag to Emden on 25 March 1919, where he remained for the remainder of the internment.

[20][28] On 31 May, the men aboard Emden (and every other German ship in captivity) hoisted the Reichskriegsflagge (Imperial War Flag) in commemoration of the Battle of Jutland, fought three years earlier.

On the morning of 21 June the British fleet left Scapa Flow to conduct training maneuvers, and at 11:20 Reuter transmitted the order to his ships.

Too badly damaged by flooding and beaching for further service,[31] Emden was awarded to the French Navy on 11 March 1920,[2] as a so-called "Propaganda ship" which could be used as a target or for experimental purposes for a short time before being scrapped or sunk.